


Now and Forever

by navaan



Category: DCU (Comics), Demon Knights
Genre: Camelot, Character Study, F/M, Ficlet, Future Fic, Immortality, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 21:55:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6488917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navaan/pseuds/navaan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Camelot and the quest are what made and shaped Ystin, but life moves forward even for immortals.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now and Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Written for this [37 basic plotlines](navaan.livejournal.com/232257.html) meme from ages ago for the prompt “Shining Knight, A miracle of God” by Mithen.
> 
> You can also read this story and comment on it on Livejournal [here](http://navaan.livejournal.com/262544.htmlE). Feel free to friend or contact me there.

Ystin meets Merlin a couple of times more. It’s never in Camelot, but after meeting him again for the first time after the Camelot that _made_ Sir Ystin has gone up in flames and destruction, Ystin has come to think that perhaps it doesn’t matter. Merlin doesn’t belong in Camelot anymore. And neither does Sir Ystin.

But Camelot - and that is very much a lesson learned - is eternal. And so are they. It’s a magic thing, an everlasting ideal, a core truth of magic and life and human ingenuity and always the home of a once and future king and knight true of heart and fallible like humans.

It's life – changeable and perfect in its complicated imperfection and fleetingness.

Today Camelot is no more, but tomorrow it will be again. Somewhere. 

Today, Sir Ystin, armor shining bright gold, sword polished and sharpened, stands beside a foreign throne, where an aging, just and well-learned king sits and looks out at his glittering city of Al-Wadi on the coast of Spain. The kind king, Al-Jabr, insists he's not a king but a caliph. 

Ystin doesn't see the difference. Because Ystin is a knight, even if many people look at him and think his face and body are enough to prove that he _can't_ be. A ruler of a city kingdom like Al-Wadi is a king like Arthur was king in Camelot, whatever name or title the king might give himself. He thinks Al-Jabr understands the truth of that, but word are like numbers to him and precision matters to him. 

People come here from all over the lands to see the wonders, to find shelter and safety and justice. Al-Wadi truly is the city of miracles and Al-Jabr often calls it a “miracle of Allah”. It certainly is a city of wonders and advancement, where people as different as they are can stand together and take a stand against evil and darkness and whatever this world throws in their way. 

It's Camelot all over again, but not the same. Much stranger. 

It's still home.

And there is this unlikely group of knights who all of them, with the exception of Ystin himself, are not really knights. But what does it matter? 

Exoristos looks over at him and smiles and something jumps in Ystin's chest, a promise; wonder perhaps. Ystin smiles back and it comes much too easily.

They are both of them immortals thrown back into the history of mortals. And grail or no grail, for now Ystin thinks the quest can rest until a new Camelot has to be found, a grail to be protected, and the quest has to be resumed.

* * *

Ystin meets Merlin again. This time it’s even in Camelot. Thousands of years have passed and yet the situation is familiar.

This is a very different Camelot, with spaceships and science and technology the world has never seen. Their Arthur is a descendant of Al-Jabr and he is so much his old friend's likeness, the likeness of the young man Ystin first met in Little Spring, that it’s easy to think he’s the same man reborn to rule again. 

A once and future king.

Ex is standing at Ystin’s side again, unchangeable and fierce, but so much wiser than in their early days together. “A new home, my good sir,” she says, jesting, and kisses Ystin on the corner of the lips. When she pulls away, standing tall and towering and proud as always, much calmer than she used to be, but still as fierce, her eyes are twinkling with that little hint of love and emotion that says: _You're a knight and a sir, but also as worthy as any Amazon in my own heart.”_

_“For now,” Ystin agrees._

__And forever._ _

Even in eternity, life remains unpredictable and precious. And it's much easier not to walk this path alone. 

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [The Once and Future Camelot (The It's Only A Model Remix)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7574764) by [sevenofspade](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sevenofspade/pseuds/sevenofspade)




End file.
